Two Yanks in a Phone Booth
by Ann Pendragon
Summary: Mistletoe had nothing on little red phone booths.


**DISCLAIMER: **Sadly, I do not own Bones or any of the lovely characters.

**RATING: **K+

**AUTHORS NOTE:** Been an avid viewer of Bones and just felt inspired to toss out a Bones inspired one-shot of our favorite duo. Also needed a break from my own writing.

This bit is inspired by the "Yanks" episodes, spoilers re: Gordon Gordon Wyatt and some wishful thinking. It's not beta'd. Just wanted to get it out there, so there are plenty of grammar mistakes. I hope I kept the characters in character, because I love them just the way they are. So happy dancing phalanges everyone.

**WARNING: **Minimal editing, angst with a sprinkle of mush. Spoiler for "Yanks", "Pain in the Heart" and "Hero in the Hold".

**Two Yanks in a Phone Booth**

by Ann Pendragon

Dr. Gordon Gordon Wyatt was retiring, but he had one last case to assist the FBI with and on British soil to boot. An American student found beheaded in the back woods of Cambridge University. Of course Gordon Gordon had only asked to work with the best…

…………………………….

"No Bones, I do not want to satisfy by biological urges with Professor Denton at the University lab." Special Agent Seeley Booth let out a low frustrated growl, tightening his grip on his partners arm as he navigated them both through the rainy, crowded London streets.

"It's just that she was very attractive…" Dr. Temperance Brennan stubbornly continued, picking up her pace beside her partners long strides before she got dragged like a rag doll through the thinning crowd. "…and very intelligent." She yelled over the increasing rain. "AND I believe she found you very attractive. She kept looking at your groin area…"

"Whoa! Bones?" Booth slid to a stop on the wet pavement and nearly smacked into a light post before he could throw an incredulous stare at his partner and best friend. "I told you to pay attention if she was lying, not—you know—report to me if she was eyeing my goods."

There were some days he wished that his near psychic ability to read others hadn't been rubbing off on his once oblivious to a fault partner these last four years. Yeah he noticed Dr. Olivia Denton checking him out during their investigation at Cambridge, and he'd have to turn in his man membership card if he didn't admit the Brit was hot. But sleep with her?

"Well she was!" Bones pulled her elbow out of Booths grasp and pushed a wet lock of hair out of her wide blue eyes.

Booth just stared at her for a moment, shaking his head. _'Maybe she's not as observant as I give her credit. She still doesn't have a clue…'_ Booth grabbed for the frustrating brunette once more and continued through the rain while she struggled in his grasp.

"How much farther is the Hotel, Booth? I don't remember us taking the car this way…"

"Far." He barked, looking around them for a dry place to wait out the rain, but only found closed businesses and private homes up and down the street and not one damn taxi. And then he saw it. _'Any port in a storm…'_ he internally grumbled.

"Come on Bones!" he brought them to the doors of the old red phone booth from England's past and got a odd look from his partner.

"We have cell phones…"

"Get in, Bones." He opened the door and slid in behind his partner out of the rain.

The two fell into an all too familiar silence in the cramped little space, trying to be oblivious to the other as they attempted to squeeze the excess water out of their cloths and hair. The entire trip—hell, the last year had fell into moments like this, odd and uncomfortable silences. And not the 'we are partners and we are comfortable around each other' quiet they had taken for granted the last few of years. It was the uneasy quiet of two people who had built up a pile of things they both should have said a long time ago and the weight of those things were now squashing them. Angela was ever so elegant in calling the situation "the big honking elephant in the room", to which both partners denied on different occasions and always adamantly.

It had began a year ago, after the unsettling resolution of the Gormogon case and further back still, the very real shooting of Agent Seeley Booth and his faked death. Booth, if he was in a place to willingly admit it, would say this thing between them began long before that, at Max Keenan's trial. Maybe even earlier, when he'd drawn that damn line out between him and Bones. And recent events hadn't helped. The resurfacing of the Grave Digger seemed to have been the cherry on top the pile of emotional situations the partners had yet to tackle.

And while both partners continued to deny it to the other, to their friends and colleagues, and in their sessions with Dr. Sweets, things had irreversibly changed between them since those emotionally jarring events. How could it have not, when each others trust and devotion to the other had been so thoroughly tested? So here they were again, another bout of silence, both avoiding "the elephant" that now sat familiarly on both their chests, petrified of causing its stampede if they even looked at it.

"I just want you to feel better." Brennan finally spoke, her voice sullen.

Booth quickly looked up to her from wringing out his soaked American flag tie and found his chest clench at the sight of her. He wasn't expecting the stunning combination the chilling rain and her ample curves could make. _'Maybe the phone booth wasn't such a good idea…'_

"What do you mean 'feel better'?" he finally stuttered out. _'Stoop some piece of tail in tweed and heals and call me in the morning 'better'? If that was the doctor's prescription, she was off base with her diagnosis. Way off base.'_

"It's just—as your partner—I've noticed you haven't been seeing anyone…" her voice had taken on the maddening logicality that never failed to take Booths patience to that place where the compulsion to kiss her or kill her ran a close neck and neck.

"How do you know who I'm seeing or not seeing?" Booth demanded, getting her to look at him fully, her brow now furrowed over piercing blue eyes. _'As my partner? Bullshit, Bones. BULLSHIT!' _ Seeley turned his attentions back to his soaked tie, squashing it in his fist.

"We spend at least 60% of our time together, Booth, if not more." Brennan offered as explanation. "I would have been privy if you were dating someone as you are well aware of each of the dates I have recently been on."

At this point, Booth let out a highly audible huff and tried to turn as far as he could manage from his partner in their confined space. He didn't want to think of each non-descript moron Brennan had been on a date with these last long months. Each high falooting, pompous ass he wanted to pop like a pimple for thinking that any of them could be good enough for 'his' Bones.

"Does being with those men make you 'feel better', Bones?" There was no anger left in his voice. If anything he sounded tired and even a little hurt. He hadn't expected on saying his personal thoughts aloud and mentally cursed himself for it. But at least, his question had finally stopped whatever else Brennan was about to say in support of her theory on him needing to get laid.

Brennan had indeed been stopped mid-theory and found her eyes frozen on the rigid back of her partner, startled by the worn character of his tone and the dip of his shoulders. To her chagrin, she found herself struggling to find a safe answer to give him. One that didn't include a lie, because she hadn't and couldn't lie to him. "Booth?"

"Do being with them make you feel better, Temperance?" his voice was even as he watched the rain pour over the glass walls of the phone booth, giving little indication of the whirl of emotion building within him. How could she even think that sleeping with another woman would fix what not having her did to him? _'God damned line…' _"Do they make you happy?" he asked.

"Define happy, Booth." She had felt her chest tighten at the use of her given name and it got even worse when he turned to face her after her poor answer. She felt paralyzed by those damnedable, deep eyes and that look he always gave her when he was letting her in, when he wanted to show care, that he lov… _'OH GOD! I know what that look means…'_

Booth saw her eyes widen in some sort of realization and back away from him. She may have ran if the rain hadn't been pouring down in torrents and he wasn't backed against her only means of escape. Looking into those beautiful, ethereal eyes, Seeley Booth could honestly say he was petrified of what those eyes were making him feel at that moment. Made him want to tell her things he'd always known about her, about himself and about what he always believed when it came to them. _'I should stop this now. I will loose her if I push this. I can't have her leave me.'_

He'd resigned himself to the fact long ago that he'd take whatever Temperance Brennan was willing to give him, just as long as she stayed at his side. Even if it meant being stranded in this self imposed relationship limbo they were in now. Because in the end, he'd take a life time of odd silences and bickering with her, than a life time of 'feeling better' with anyone else.

She wanted a definition of happy? His mind fell on a multitude of images, including playing ball with Parker every other Sunday and celebrating the resolution of a case at Sid's or the diner with the squints. And then he saw images of her, just smiling that smile he knew she only gave him… "As happy as you are eating pie at the diner with me?"

His words hung out over the sound of beating rain on the glass and metal around them, their eyes locked in an internal war—a war both could win if they just took that one last step…

"I don't eat pie." Temperance weakly breathed out, her eyes rounded moons.

"Temperance?" The ache in his voice startling even him. "Please!"

Brennan felt her eyes tear and closed them tight to him. Her name on his lips was quickly becoming her undoing as much as the answer he deserved to hear. She knew what it meant now, when he looked at her the way he did, the same reason why her given name always sounded like a sacred prayer when it fell from his lips.

Dr. Temperance Brennan did not believe in religion or prayer, but she had faith—faith in Booth. She trusted him with her life, her family and friends lives time and time again. It had only been recently her trust in him had flickered and it hadn't been entirely his fault. She thought she'd lost him—that he'd left her and when he came back, alive and whole, she'd felt betrayed. And then when the Gravedigger came back and nearly took him away from her again…It was too much.

Sweets had been right in his assessment of why she'd hit Booth at the funeral. She'd felt passion-anger. She had been forced to face a life without her partner in it and it had hurt too damn much and scared her too damn much to take. It's why she'd tried keeping a safer distance from Booth after the Gravedigger case, to stay away from the man who could hurt her so lethally only because he meant so much to her. It's why she tried to date other men, knowing they were all excuses—poor substitutes for a man who had slowly changed her world—no—became her world.

It all came down to one question for her. Could she believe in Seeley Booth enough now, to let him have the one last piece of her he hadn't stolen or she hadn't already given him outright? Could he keep safe her heart?

"Then no, Booth. They don't make me happy." her voice a teary whisper as she answered his first question, while answering her own. "They can't…" her voice wavered and died.

Inch by inch he closed the distance between them till he could feel the warmth of her body without touching it. He took in her answer as he breathed her in. Could he hope?

"Why can't they make you happy, Temperance?" his words ghosting over her closed eyes.

"They're not you." Brennan choked as her eyes opened wide to meet the warm sepia embrace of her partner and best friends. "No one makes me feel the way I feel when I'm with you…"

"Tempe…" Booth reached for her arms, pulling her to his chest as they both began to shake. _'Please mean what I hope you mean, Temperance. Don't break my heart…' _"Tell me what that means to you." He could not help but beg. "Tell me!"

Teardrops had replaced the rain that lay on her cheeks. Temperance had never been more scared in her entire life and she was in the grasp of the one man that made her feel the safest.

"It means-it means that I-I love you." She sobbed. "And I didn't want to, but you made me." She began to cry. "Damn you, I thought you were dead…" Brennan began to beat on her startled partner's chest. "And then the Gravedigger…. I didn't want to hurt like that, Booth. I didn't want to love…" she trailed off as she continued to beat at his broad chest until strong hands came up to grab her fists and hold them to the same place she had been beating on. His heart.

"Shhh." He soothed her as she cried and his heart soared. In spite of the duress her confession caused her, he could not contain his smile. Closing his eyes, he leaned his forehead against her bowed head and just breathed. "It's okay, Bones. We're gonna be okay…"

"It's not okay, its not!" she cried. "You said there's a line…"

"We crossed that line long before I drew it, Bones. I was a coward for drawing it the way I did, when I did. I was scared…"

"You-you were scared?" For a moment she forgot her own fears and opened her eyes. In the four years knowing Seeley Booth, she couldn't recall him admitting fear.

"Yes Bones, I was scared." His answer honest. "Just the thought of something happening to you like it did Cam, had froze me with fear." He admitted. "It still does."

"But how-how do you keep working with me if your scared of what could happen to me in the field?"

"Because it's 'could happen' Bones, not 'will happen'. I can't predict the future and I have to trust that me and you will do our damndest to keep the other safe as partners and as friends. I'm still afraid, but my faith in us—our partnership—has to be stronger than the fear. Faith** is** stronger than fear, Bones. Hands down." Slowly, gently he reached for the wet strands of her hair that still plastered against the porcelain skin of her neck and felt her shake under his touch. His breath caught. "And so is love."

Brennan silently peered into Booths dark shimmering eyes, her own filled with a wonder at the latest and greatest lesson this man had given her. She understood now. All those years he'd challenged her to see the world she could not quantify or reason, challenging not only her head but her heart. Showing her how to trust again—to live. All along Seeley Booth had been teaching her how to love.

Booth watched her take in his words; he could almost see that beautiful mind of hers at work behind her eyes. His only hope was that she was asking her heart for its opinion too. He touched her again and she let him. Smoothing his hand up to her jaw to her chin, he pulled her face close to his own. He was in awe of what this moment was becoming—what they were becoming in it.

"I love you Bones. I have for a long time now." He swallowed hard while wiping away the fresh tears streaming down Brennan's face. "I don't want to hold you back; I don't want to make you be anything you don't want to be-do anything you don't want to do. And I'm not going to leave you behind, because I can't. Because you're a part of my life—hell, you're a part of me…"

"Booth?"

"I need you in my life, Bones. I…"

"Booth?"

"I'm trying to poor my heart out here, Bones." Booth pleaded.

"I know—I just…" Brennan stuttered out, her eyes wide and glistening from his words, his touch. "This is where I put my heart in to overdrive."

It wasn't a question, but before Booth could realize this, he was once again being pulled into his partner's kiss. And what a kiss. Mistletoe had nothing on little red phone booths.

_Fin._


End file.
